Sounds Around Town: Dylan Deluxe

Wednesday

Feb 26, 2014 at 5:37 PMFeb 27, 2014 at 6:13 PM

By Ed SymkusWicked Local Arts correspondent

Everyone is still making a big, well deserved hullabaloo about the Beatles 50th anniversary business. But nobody's talking about a certain scraggly haired, raspy voiced folksinger from Hibbing, Minn., who was making his way around the coffeehouse circuit a couple of years before anyone heard of the Fab Four. Bob Dylan's first Columbia album – "Bob Dylan" – was released in 1962. Three decades later, after the times, and Dylan's music, had changed repeatedly, some of his friends got together at Madison Square Garden to honor and play the songs of Dylan. That gig, titled "The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration," previously available on CD, will be released on March 4 as a "Deluxe Edition" for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray (and CD).Aside from a couple of straining voices (Dylan's included) there isn't a low point to be found. Highlights include Stevie Wonder doing a laidback and soulful "Blowin' in the Wind"; Johnny Winter roaring out "Highway 61 Revisited" while demonstrating what playing electric slide guitar is all about; Richie Havens, strumming for all he's worth, on a heartfelt solo version of "Just Like a Woman," which he covered on his debut album, "Mixed Bag"; Neil Young tearing the place up on both "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "All Along the Watchtower"; Chrissie Hynde making "I Shall Be Released" all her own; and Eric Clapton with a fiery, bluesy, solo-filled rendition of "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright." Dylan only performs on four songs. Of his two solo shots, he's kinda ragged on "It's Alright, Ma," but digs deep and finds some brilliance for "Girl of the North Country." (Columbia/Legacy)Metal rock-docAt a different end of the musical spectrum, as far away from folk as you can get, there's metal. A few years back, when metal band Lamb of God played a packed concert in Prague, an incident occurred that later landed frontman vocalist Randy Blythe in a Czech Republic prison, accused of manslaughter. It seems that a 19-year-old fan, Daniel Nosek, made his way to the stage, and ended up dying after a nasty fall into the audience. Charges against Blythe were that he pushed the fan. There was a long trial, which came close to bankrupting the band, and Blythe spent some time in prison, but was acquitted last year. The feature length documentary "Lamb of God: As the Palaces Burn" begins as a look at the band's huge international fan base, and has plenty of live footage. It isn't till the halfway point that the police take Blythe away, and the film eventually becomes a sort of courtroom potboiler. One enthusiastic reviewer at Film Threat called it "the towering ‘Rashomon' of rock-docs." It screens at the Brighton Music Hall on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15.50. Info: 617-779-0140. The film will also be shown on March 6 at Showcase Cinemas in Worcester, Dedham, Randolph, Lowell, and Revere.Tosca you can dance toWhen Tosca performs at the Paradise in Boston on March 6, no one will be thinking about Giacomo Puccini, or any opera at all. We're talking about ambient music here, with a hefty helping of electronica, along with more or less traditional vocals, all mixed together into a dance groove. Assembled by Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber, on keyboards and electronics, the show will feature vocals by Cath Coffey and Robert Gallagher, as well as stunning visuals complementing the sounds, courtesy of Ars Electronica Future Lab. Showtime is 7 p.m. Tickets are $33. Info, 617-562-8800.Make a planThere may be a whole lot of eclecticism in that one Tosca show, but there's an amazing variety of music and musicians all over the place in the coming week. Folksinger and actor Theodore Bikel is at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on March 1. I interviewed Bikel a number of years ago, and he got to talking about his first album, consisting of Israeli folk music, on Elektra Records. "It sold," he said, "and so did the subsequent albums. In fact Elektra, which was then quite a small company, when they moved into their first big office, they nicknamed it the house that Theo built." Boston native and former singer-guitarist for the band New England John Fannon plays Amazing Things in Framingham on March 1. Boston-based singer-songwriter Chelmsford-based country singer-songwriter Jilly Martin opens for Fannon. Catie Curtis performs tunes from her brand new album "Flying Dream" at the Theodore Parker Church in West Roxbury on March 1. Jazz pianist extraordinaire Marcus Roberts leads his trio on two nights, March 1 and 2, at Scullers in Boston. Sting and Paul Simon join forces for a twin bill at the TD Garden on March 3. Cambridge-based reedman Ken Field leads his Revolutionary Snake Ensemble in the joyous jazz sounds of New Orleans at the Regattabar in Cambridge on March 4. Singer-songwriter Josh Ritter holds court on two nights – March 5 and 6 – at the Somerville Theater.Video of the WeekSting and Robert Downey Jr. perform a killer "Driven to Tears" at www.youtube.com/watch?v=1crxmBTxRlMEd Symkus can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com. Follow us @WickedLocalArts on Twitter and on Facebook.